Fair Warning (2)

A worthless person, a wicked man, is one who walks with a perverse mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers; who, with perversion in his heart, continually devises evil, who spreads strife.  Therefore his disaster will come suddenly; instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.  Proverbs 6:12-15  NASB

Will come suddenly – I’d like to believe this verse is true.  I’d like to see God’s judgment fall upon these people—quickly, before they can do any more damage.  I’d like to see it . . . but I don’t.  These evil-hearted people just continue.  They castigate the righteous.  They do all they can to undermine God’s instructions about moral living.  They blame others.  They create chaos and dissention.  And nothing happens.  Why would  verse in the Bible suggest that they will come to a sudden end when human history says otherwise?  Perhaps the answer is in the translation.

The word, pitʾōm, isn’t just about a sudden event.  It also means something surprising, something unexpected.  “Of the twenty-five uses of pitʾōm all of them occur in connection with disaster or judgment.”^[1]  But this doesn’t mean the disaster or judgment is immediate.  It means that it wasn’t anticipated.  The wicked person believes that the future will be just like the present.  Nothing will happen to prevent his perversity.  No accountability will emerge.  He will just keep doing what he is doing—and get away with it.  pitʾōm is the biblical term for a surprising turn.  When it occurs, and the “when” is unspecified, it will come as a shock to the wicked.  God will show up unannounced.  Perhaps we should read this as “Therefore his disaster will be a complete surprise.”  Hebrew uses the same word twice, once for “will come suddenly” and the second time for “instantly.”  Repetition always means emphasis. 

Think of this verse as a medical prognosis.  You have high blood pressure.  You’re overweight.  You don’t exercise very much.  You aren’t on a diet.  You have a high stress job.  You’ve been to the doctor and he’s told you about the risks.  But . . . everything seems normal right now.  Life goes on day after day just as you expect.  You still do what you want to do.  pitʾōm seems impossible.  And then you have a stroke.  What a surprise!  Didn’t all the signs point to this?  But who cares about the signs?  As Barak Obama once famously quipped, “It’s not a problem today.”

Modern Western society is at the cusp of a severe stroke.  A sudden and unexpected collapse.  Our leaders have been “walking” the talk for a long time, thinking that the discord they sow has no real effect on them.  pitʾōm is waiting—a little while longer—maybe.

Topical Index: pitʾōm, suddenly, surprise, consequences, Proverbs 6:12-15